Powerhouse: Burson Conductor

Disclaimer: The Burson Conductor unit used in this review is a loaner unit from Burson Audio.

Roughly two years ago I came across the first Burson headphone amp that is the HA-160. I liked the amp from the first moment I listened to it. It was a distinct solid state sound: warm, full bodied, but most of all it had this pace, PRaT and impact like no other. After a while Burson decided to add a built-in DAC to the HA-160 amp, naming it as the HA-160D. Not long after the HA-160D, Burson released the HA-160DS which omitted the pre-amp function from the HA-160D to make a more affordable desktop Amplifier/DAC unit. Last year, Burson came out with a new headphone amp with a new, simpler circuit design yet offering 4W of power: the Soloist. I loved the sound of the Soloist, even more than the sound of the HA-160 and it quickly became my favorite solid state amp. Finally we now have the Conductor, where you have the same 4W amplifier of the Soloist put in the same box with a Sabre based DAC. I’ve been using the Conductor for a few weeks now, and this amplifier simply has it all: sound, power, digital-to-analog conversion, pre-amp, connectivity, and build quality. The most complete and whole one box package I’ve seen to date.

Amplifier Impressions

The first thing I did upon the arrival of the Conductor was comparing the amplifier section to the Soloist which I loved. One of the thing I love about the Soloist amp is it adds low end grunt to the Hifiman orthodynamic headphones (especially the HE-500 and HE-6 that can definitely use some addition there). The Conductor supposedly has identical amplifier section to the Soloist, but I find the Conductor to have an even beefier low end compared to the Soloist. Sweet! What’s causing the difference, I asked? According to Burson that’s because the Soloist in my possession is a pre-production unit, and had I compared the Conductor to a production unit Soloist, the amplifier section would’ve sounded the same. Sounds good to me as people are getting a better version of the Soloist sound that I find to be excellent already.

When Burson moved to the new Soloist based amp, the biggest improvement in my opinion is not the 4W output but the simpler circuit with smaller components count. I’m with the camp that believes that less parts count would give a more natural, more organic sound. Like on the Soloist, the sound on the Conductor is more natural, more coherent, and more organic than on the HA-160D. It loses a bit of that bass articulation that the HA-160D is very strong at, but I don’t mind since I’m getting a more organic sound overall. The amplifier is also more laid back and the pace is a bit slower than that of the HA-160D, but again, the change is welcome to my ears as I enjoy a laid back sound (you all know the Sennheiser HD650). Despite these changes, PRaT is still very powerful with the Conductor, though slightly behind the HA-160D’s.

The Conductor covers just about any headphone in the market. I’ve used it with easy to drive dynamics like the Senn Amperior, Senn Momentum, Denon D600 and D7100. The amp is dead quiet even with the Momentum which is very sensitive and easy to drive. With the big heavy orthos it obviously work very well, from the HE-400 (which the Conductor conveniently drives at low gain) to the HE-500 and the HE-6 (I use high gain for this). I still prefer pairing the 300Ω Sennheiser HD650 and HD800 with big tube amps, but tube amps are usually more limited in headphone pairing compatibility, especially OTL designs. The strong point with the Conductor I find is that it works very well with almost anything I can throw at it. You can throw Grados/Alessandros to it, old Fostex orthodynamics or new Hifiman/Audez’e ones, ultra sensitive portable headphones (not that you’d need a Burson to drive them), big impedance dynamics like the HD650 or the DT880, all the way to the exquisite Japanese wooden headphones from Audio Technica. Chances are, the Conductor will drive 99 out of the 100 headphones in the market. And based on my experience with the HE-6, I really don’t think that there is anything out there that the Conductor can’t handle, except perhaps the Japanes TakeT headphone which I’ve yet to try.

The only problem I have with the Conductor is when I tried to use the ultra-low sensitivity JH5Pro IEM. Though the stepped attenuator volume control was precise and free from any imbalance, I only get 4 clicks from zero level (where I still get small sound leaks) to my comfortable listening level, even at low gain. However, I don’t think it’s a big issue though since I don’t normally use IEMs with 4W amplifiers.

You may also like

86 Comments

I’ve been having a lot of trouble with that Tenor USB receiver chip lately. The drivers are buggy as hell which means that it may connect in synchronous mode. I hope that Burson did something about it because Audio-GD sure didn’t.

Christian Ruiz

Christian, The Conductor gives you a better amp where the HP-A8 a better DAC.

If it was me, I would go for the ALO Pan Am. Simply better synergy with the LCD-2 and I do sell both the ALO and the Fostex at my store. Short of comparing to the big thousand dollar amps, I think the Pan Am is a very good pairing with the LCD-2.

Christian Ruiz

Dave Ulrich

From the Pan Am review:

The real magic happens when we paired the PanAm with the Audez’e LCD-2.

At first we only wanted to find out if the PanAm can drive the LCD-2 sufficiently, and it did. We thought that the amp had enough power to drive the LCD-2 with good impact, and we enjoyed the pairing as well. But the more we listened to it, the more we got hooked into the combination, and at one point Moko remarked that ALO must’ve used the LCD-2 as a reference to develop the PanAm because the pairing is incredibly good. I gave that a second thought, and not only do I agree, but I can’t remember the last time I listened to a pairing this impressive with the LCD-2.

It’s funny because the LCD-2 doesn’t seem to work well out of the high end tube amps (pure tubes, no solid state hybrids) like the Woo Audio WA5 and the others. So far I’ve always been recommending the LCD-2 with the Burson amps, especially the HA-160 line up as the best pairing I know for the LCD-2. Lieven also swears by the Violectric amps which is another solid state. I don’t know how the Vio compares to the Burson when it comes to driving the LCD-2, but compared to the PanAm, the synergy is clearly better with the PanAm. You get a much bigger soundstage with the PanAm, the midrange is fuller, smoother and less grainy, and the dynamics is also bigger with the PanAm. PRaT is a little better on the Burson, but that’s about it. Clearly this isn’t a function of power output alone, and I really don’t know how ALO made this amp to be such a brilliant amplifier for the LCD-2, but it does.

For the past two weeks I’ve been telling all my local friends to go audition the LCD-2 with the PanAm.

Another magic with the LCD-2 and PanAm pairing is the genre bandwith. I haven’t been keeping track of all the changes that Audez’e does with the LCD-2,but this last revision with the wooden housing (not bamboo) and the new style cable connector (introduced in the LCD-3), had just the right amount of everything. I tried just about every genre out there, and the pair just played good music. I was especially blown away listening to Massive Attack’s Mezzanine as I don’t remember any LCD-2 pairing giving me that sort of a bass texture I hear from the PanAm. But more than that we tried so many different songs from mine and Moko’s Ipods; from Jazz to Rock to what have you. The pair just played music.

The NOS 6AK5W Siemens tube ($29 in a pair) gives a more forward and sweeter midrange, an even cleaner sound than the stock and an even bigger soundstage than stock. With some headphones like the Aurisonics ASG-1, I didn’t like the extra midrange which is a little too tubey. Also PRaT is a tad less than the stock tube. With the LCD-2 which has no problem producing PRaT, this tube simply rocks, and the more forward midrange is just perfect for the LCD-2.

Dave Ulrich

I also talked a bit about the V200 + LCD-2 pairing somewhere. Lieven likes the V200 better than the Pan Am pairing (mainly on bass, and I agree the bass is better) but overall I thought the LCD-2 was more alive and more dynamic on the PanAm. Midrange quality is definitely better on the PanAm.

John123John

Alexander

Nice review! It is the best all in one box I have heard until now. I am very happy with it! I don’t know why you said it falls short at the DAC section. I had the chance to listen to it side by side with the m2tech vaughan, which is in a totally different price league. I found the amplifier from Conductor to be better, and the dac section to be very very close to Vaughans’ :D, and that is amazing. It does have some usb drivers issues, but I heard they are working on them. If you don’t use it as a default playing device in Windows or in other programs like skype, gtalk, etc while you listen to music, the problems will almost disappear.

Unknown

Lol u kidding? Vaughan DAC is not even close to Eximus. Sorry I don’t know about the amp section. But i know it is much better than Conductor overall. I think you should buy the Conductor that u heard. Perhaps it’s a special one. 😀

Alexander

I am saying what I heard. The Vaughan had a smoother more detailed sound because of the battery I think. So yes the sound was cleaner. The separation of instruments a little better. However the differences were minor. Conductor on the other hand had a better lower midrange and bass pressence. Beware that Psychoacoustics is likely to occur on this huge price leap between the two. I have heard them both with lcd2 & lcd3

Alexander

I think both have the same level of importance, but have no fear, the DAC in Conductor is awesome, and I do not agree with Mike where he says it is lacking at all! It is far better than the old dac from Burson and can compete with other dacs at even higher prices!

Guest

I think both have the same level of importance, but have no fear, the DAC in Conductor is awesome, and I do not agree with Mike where he says it is lacking at all! It is far better than the old dac from Burson and can compete with other dacs at even higher prices!

niice

Hi Mike, great review again! I’m looking for the Amp+DAC at this price range so I wonder how the sound different when compare Conductor with Fostex HP-A8. My headphone is Alessandro MS Pro-i

The types of music I listen are kind of Jazz (both vocal and instrumental such as piano, guitar, trio or big band) Vocal (audiophile music), bossa nova with many type of percussion, middle pace pop music, new age. I don’t listen electronic music, hard-rock

Piotrek

Mike,

first of all thank you for a great review (as always). I was searching for a new DAC/Amp combo and was considering between Burson Conductor and Fostex HP-A8C, but now i think it’s a clear call.

This have helped me a lot, since in my country (Poland) it’s almost impossible to hear Fostex (only very few retailers list them on their website, but don’t have them at shop) and Burson is much easier to get / hear (authorised dealers etc.).

Once again thank you for the review, because now i don’t have to ask myself a question if LCD-2/3 or Hi-fi 500/HE-6 would sound better paired with Fostex than with Burson (which after your review i’m going to get).

Peter

Little off topic.

Based on your recommendations i got AKG K550 and Beyer DT770 Pro AE, which were a top call, but now i’m looking for a small dac/amp combo for an office rig (any chance for a nuforce udh-100 review in near future?).

Michael

I owned the 160D and felt the DAC was the weakest part of that unit. I also thought it was a poor pairing for the HD-800 (it accentuated the HD-800’s bright upper middle frequencies to the point of annoyance), but paired better with my HD-650.

Does the Conductor right any of these perceived problems? It sounds like you really like it.

Hi Mike. I want to buy a Conductor to pair with LCD-2’s, but I already own the HRT Music Streamer II+ and may go with the Soloist because of price. What would I be missing quality wise in your opinion (as compared to the Conductor) by going this route?

kai

Liviu Raicea

Hi Mike.

You said that the amp in HP-A8 is on par with its dac and since the Fostex DAC is better that Burson’s then.. I gues Fostex should be the winner here. What’s the use of a better amp if the dac feeding it is not on par? The amp is waisted (I think)

Damián Bonadonna

Nice review! Sounds like an awesome unit. But i was wondering.. My music library consists out of almost 70% mp3’s (192kb/sec or higher) and a lot of not to great recorded albums. Now, will I be able to hear a difference with this kind of audio between a Conductor and a 160Ds? It will be paired with a LCD-2 (which is pretty great with nonperfect recordings imho!). Will the Conductor be worth 2x the price of the 160Ds in your opinion?

Michel

Hi Mike i had the Burson160ds with the LAWTON AUDIO denon d-5000 (25 ohms) and i loved it ,would i be blown away by the CONDUCTOR you think or it would be only an average upgrade in sound quality waiting for this to pull the trigger on the CONDUCTOR.or is there a better alternative in that price range keeping in mind i love a good bass. Thanks

Hi Michel, Would love if I can give you a straight answer as I don’t have that headphone around to try with the Burson. I can only say that the Conductor and Soloist (they’re the same amplifier section) are overall a better amp than the HA160 series.

I find it hard to go back to the HA160 as the Soloist circuitry sounds much more analog and with a beefier low end. The sound is overall more organic.

sdsmpie

Hi Mike,Can you please tell me how something like the Conductor compares to a FiiO E17? Burson States “that they refuse to use IC Based building blocks” why is that better? reading sites like NWAVGUY it seems that O2 DAC would be as good as this ? i just ordered my first high-end cans T5p and later in the future would perhaps go for a pear of Hifiman.. I just hope you can advice me on the matter .? Should i start small with something like the FiiO E17 and later on move to the Burson Conductor ..? Or will i be missing out so much that i should just jump in to the Burson Boat?

Dave Ulrich

ExpectationGap

I’m curious about the power rating of the Conductor/Solist. Most early reviews claim 4 Watts @16 Ohms, but Burson’s site (as of 7/4/2013) states 4 Watts @8 Ohms. I’ve sent them an email asking for clarification, since that’s a pretty significant difference.

That 1W@32 ohms really stood out, as that’s what the woo audio WA7 delivers – which I’m also considering. Burson complimented Audeze on great headphones, but cautioned against believing that the LCD line, while demanding, are difficult to drive.

This seems the case, as many professional reviewers and enthusiasts agree that the power output drives the LCD2/3 sufficiently, and with great results. It’s also fantastic to receive prompt, and earnest responses from audio manufacturers. Very impressive indeed.

The formula can’t be trusted outside the range 16 Ohms through 150 Ohms. It’s really just an approximation for values that fit this range.

So… an LCD-2.r2 at 60 Ohms would be getting around 1.6 Watts. An LCD-3 at 45 Ohms would be getting around 1.8 Watts.

That would help answer why the Soloist/Conductor has been such a good pairing for the LCD-2/3. I’ve actually been listening to this rig, lent from The Cable Company, for the past two weeks – and neither LCD-2 or 3 have struggled at all with the conductor.

Now, I just have to try out the WooAudio WA7 with these headphones and I’ll be set on a direction for purchase.